


Whir

by wynnedotte



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Self Confidence Issues, Self-Hatred
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-10
Updated: 2016-09-10
Packaged: 2018-08-14 06:47:54
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,185
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8002477
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wynnedotte/pseuds/wynnedotte
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Angela gets kicked out of her office but ends up returning with an injured Genji.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Whir

**Author's Note:**

> In response to an ask on tumblr: "Bc you wanted headcanons-- Angela can't sleep without some sort of background noise in the room. Normally a fan would do the trick. Or better yet, listening to the inner workings of her cyborg boyfriends body as she lays her head on his chest."
> 
> \----
> 
> This was going to be pure fluff but then it turned into this. Enjoy~

 

Angela couldn’t sleep without noise. Not loud, rambunctious noise like something you’d find from leaving the television on overnight or falling asleep to a hardcore action movie, but soft noise: whirring machinery, a squeaky fan, wind whistling through the blinds.

Most often she found herself lulled to sleep in her office. How often did her teammates and coworkers berate her for falling asleep there? Several times a day. “Angela you need to leave that damn room,” Gabriel would order. “Get some fresh air, go outside.”

“Angela,” Jack would sigh, “Maybe you should get away from your office for a bit. You could join me down in the shooting range for an hour or two; you said you wanted to practice your aim.”

“Angela, come to dinner with us!” Lena would laugh, tugging on her sleeves as the doctor prepared some food to take back to her office. “You’re always working, you need a break!”

“Angela  _ this _ .”

“Angela  _ that _ .”

They called it her Cave, the Mercy Cave, and always referred to it either in jest or with an air of disdain. How often did they find out she’d slept in there for the third night in a row, leaving her computer on so it’s soft buzzing could loll her to sleep? At least once a week. One time Jesse actually told Gabriel about it (‘tattling’ was what she’d called it at the time) and the self-appointed strike commander carried her out and locked her in her assigned bedroom. She hadn’t slept that night, not out of defiance, but the silence bore into her temples, making it impossible for her to fall asleep.

The noise reminded her of her childhood, of her parents. Both were dedicated to their studies. Every day she would spend hours in their offices with them, trailing them around their facilities, visiting the patient wards. The hum of the hospitals and research centers were ever-present in her ears, cradling her like a mother would her child.

She sighed, running a hand through her hair. “Why won’t you code?” Angela begged the computer in front of her. “Athena, would you mind working on this for me for a minute? I’m afraid I’m stuck.”

“Of course, Angela,” the luscious voice of the AI sounded from the speakers above. “Perhaps you should go for a walk to clear your head.”

“Oh not you too,” the doctor deadpanned. 

“You haven’t left this station in seven-point-four hours. A change of scenery—”

“‘ _ A change of scenery _ ’,” Angela mocked, moving away from her work bench and shrugging her grey and orange uniform jacket onto her shoulders. “Fine, I’m  _ leaving _ to go get coffee.”

“It’s a bit late for coffee, Angela; the caffeine will keep you up. Might I suggest hot chocolate instead?”

“I have hot chocolate in here, if you want me to leave--” The doctor stopped. “What time is it?”

“Zero three hundred hours.”

“ _ Three AM _ ?” she gasped.

“I’ll lock the door behind you.”

Her shoulders fell. Three AM was nothing to her, but if Athena was going to start nagging her about sleeping elsewhere too, she might as well just leave to make her happy—for now. The doctor mumbled discontentedly on her way out, her fuzzy orange stocks muffling her movements.

The dining hall was open at all hours of the night, but only the lights above the food stations were on. Angela tapped her fingers across the screen of the self-serving drink machine, ordering herself a coffee with an extra shot of espresso simply out of spite.  _ No one tells me not to drink caffeine _ , she huffed, crossing her arms and leaning against the counter as the machine hummed to life.

After a moment, the machine gave a soft beep. Just as Angela grabbed the cup and brought it to her lips, she heard a voice behind her. “Espresso at three AM?”

The steaming drink barely kissed her tongue when she jumped.  _ Thank goodness I didn’t burn myself _ , she thought, turning.

Genji stood there, donned in his sleeveless, grey, orange, and black jumpsuit and tall black socks. His hands were folded neatly behind his back. The helm he still wore but his visor was missing.  _ I didn’t know he took it off, _ she thought. Angela could see the faint gleam of his eyes in the darkness, but the rest of what Angela knew to be his scarred, partially-cybernetic face was shadowed.

“How… tenacious of you, doctor.”

Angela chuckled nervously, scratching the back of her head. “I, um, was working on a project and I needed something to help me stay up. I’m almost finished with it and I wanted to get it done before—”

“Did Athena kick you out of your office?”

She stopped and stared at him before hurriedly looking away.  _ He doesn’t like it when people look _ , Angela berated herself.  _ Even if I’ve told him it doesn’t bother me, it still makes him uncomfortable. _ “I just…” she said softly, deflated. “I like my office, why can’t people be ok with that—”

“I admire that about you, doctor.”

She froze.  _ Did I say that out loud? _ “…what?”

The ninja looked down at his feet.  _ I can’t believe I said that, _ he thought, panicked. “You pursue your work so passionately.” 

He spoke as if her were admitting an embarrassing secret.  _ I wonder why…  _ she mused.

“It’s very inspiring.”

“Oh… well, thank you, Genji.”

He nodded. “You’re welcome.”

Angela shifted on her feet. “So what brings you to the cafeteria at this hour?”

“I was…” Did he admit to her what he’d been doing? Thinking of his family, his brother, restlessly pacing his room, practicing his stances, doing anything that might take his mind off the monster he’d become. He’d finally given up and was on his way to the garden to get away from his room when he’d seen her stomp her way into the cafeteria. As soon as he saw her, every negative thought that had been swimming in his head disappeared; all that was left was an overwhelming sense of curiosity and . . . audacity? That burning feeling in his chest was making Genji feel very brave, to say the least. 

“I was on my way to the garden to try and clear my head when I saw you come in here. You seemed…” he thought, looking up at her. “Frustrated?”

Angela huffed. “Yes well—”

“Did you want to join me?”

The doctor blinked. Was it just her, or was Genji suddenly standing up straighter? If it wasn’t so dark, Angela would have noticed his tense shoulders, his fisted hands, his wide eyes.

“I know you’d like to return to your work,” he continued, suddenly sounding a bit nervous. _Idiot, she’s not going to want to sit with a monster like you_ — “You’re welcome to decline my off—”

“I think I’d enjoy that.”

Genji stopped short, petrified. 

Angela looked down at the coffee in her hands and triumphantly poured it down the sink to her right, disposing of the cup in the trashcan as well.  _ Time to relax, Angela. _ “Shall we?”

♦

The two took up seats on a bench beneath a sprawling willow tree in the garden. Angela had let Genji pick out where they would sit; she had a feeling being kept in the shadows was his own way of being comfortable, especially when he didn’t have his mask on. 

Genji was having a problem. Their talk in the cafeteria had lightened his mood considerably, but now that they were sitting quietly in the garden, those feelings were returning to him. It didn’t help that, in his haste to rush from the room, he’d forgotten to put his visor back on.  _ I have to lurk in the darkness, in my shame… _

Angela picked a twig off her fuzzy socks before folding her legs and looking out on the murmuring koi pond. “Did you—” she began, but shut her mouth before she could finish asking if Genji had a koi pond back at his home in Japan.  _ I don’t want to remind him of his life before Overwatch! I shouldn’t pour oil on the fire. He’s probably thinking about that right now _ …

Genji turned to look at her expectantly. “Did I what?”

“…nevermind. It’s not important.”

After a moment, he turned back to the garden, hunched over with his elbows on his knees. He inhaled as if to speak, but stopped short and hung his head.

“What?” Angela asked.

Genji raised his head, chewing his lip in thought. “I won’t tell you what I was going to say unless you tell me what you were going to say,” he stated, flashing her a look from the corner of his eye.

“…I suppose that’s fair,” she said softly, feeling guilty already. “I was going to ask if you had a koi pond back in Hanamura.”

He was silent for a long time. “We had a few fountains, and a koi statue. But never a koi pond.”

Angela nodded solemnly. “What were you going to say?”

Again, he was silent.  _ What do I have to lose?  _ When he finally did speak, his voice was slow, quiet, almost cautious. “Do you ever feel like you don’t belong, doctor?”

She barely had to think of an answer. “Yes.” 

He started. “Really?”

The doctor nodded. “I usually feel at home, but sometimes I do feel… a bit out of place.”

Genji mumbled something angrily in Japanese. “I don’t believe it,” Angela thought he said. Just as she was about to ask, he froze, glaring daggers at the empty space in front of them, his head tilted slightly to the right.

“Genji?” Angela sat up straighter.

The ninja grimaced, hissing. “I think one of my mechanical parts just seized up,” he whispered, pain laced through his voice.

“Oh no! Let me take a look—” Before he could blink, Angela was on her feet, pushing her sleeves up. “Where is your pain?”

“Everywhere.”

“Where’s the center of it?”

“My right shoulder.”

She ran around to his other side and tenderly brushed her fingers along the toupe cybernetic muscles of his exposed shoulder. Genji gasped, grinding his teeth. 

“Inside or out?”

“Inside, but the surface stings too.”

“We need to get you back to my office. Are you alright to walk or should I get a stretcher?”

“I will walk,” he insisted, rising slowly and painfully to his feet.

“If you need me to support you I’m right here. Let’s go this way, it’s shorter.”

They moved as quickly as they could. Luckily, the garden was in the same wing as Angela’s offices. When they finally reached the door, Angela tapped her code into the keypad. Athena’s voice sounded through the intercom, “Angela, I thought I told you—”

“You let me in right now, Athena, or I’ll break down the door.” Angela stated flatly. “Genji’s hurt and I need to treat him right away.”

The door clicked open immediately.

“Take a seat, let me get my tools,” the doctor instructed, pushing the bench out from the nearest table and rushing off to a cabinet on the other end of the room. 

Genji slowly took a seat, straddling the bench so Angela would have an easier time accessing his shoulder. She returned at the speed of light, a mid-sized tool box in her hand.  _ GENJI _ was written in Angela’s handwriting on a piece of tape stuck to the lid. 

He became alarmed when she pulled out a pair of scissors from the box. Before he could say anything Angela explained, “I’ll need to cut away your jumpsuit to get to your control panel. Don’t worry, there’s plenty of these where this one came from. You’ll have a replacement by tomorrow.”

The doctor snipped both shoulders and asked, “Can you raise your hurting arm a bit for me, Genji?” He did as she instructed, wordlessly lifted his arm as high as he dared while keeping his growls to himself. She reached up into his armpit and carefully started cutting the fabric until she could open it up enough to access the small control panel on his side. “There we go! Please keep your arm up, I just need a moment.” 

Next she pulled from the box a small tablet with two cords dangling from it. “I’m going to turn off your sensors in this area of your body so you won’t feel anything while I work on you.” Angela pushed the top of his ruined jumpsuit all the way down to his waist, revealing his half-human-half-cybernetic torso beneath. She flipped open a small panel where the curve of his ribs would be, plugged the cords into their corresponding jacks and hurriedly tapped away on the tablet. 

Genji was entirely disgusted with the way the evening was turning out. First he’d been caught without his visor which caused the poor doctor to be subject to the horrific sight that was his own face, then this body that wasn’t even his decided to act up, and now the doctor was forced to work on him when she could be spending her time getting valuable sleep.  _ I know she built me, but I can’t help but feel exposed…  _ The thought of being “plugged in” disgusted Genji as well but he kept that to himself. 

Suddenly his entire right side went dead. His arm fell, his shoulder sagged, his back caved, even his neck and jaw felt a bit numb. Genji was so startled he nearly fell off the bench. 

Angela hurriedly knelt and caught him, embracing him from the side. His injured shoulder was pressed into her breastbone, their faces level. With their noses nearly touching, Angela could see the devastating scarring on his face. He was staring wide eyed at her, thunderstruck.

She smiled softly, gazing into his lovely brown eyes. “Don’t worry, soldier,” she teased, “I’ve got you.” 

Genji shook himself slightly, frowning and looking away to hide the redness that scorched his cheeks. “That was silly of me,” he insisted as Angela helped right him. Genji reached across the table with his left arm and secured a firm grip. “It won’t happen again.”  _ Keep it together, Genji, _ he thought. For the thousandth time he wish he’d worn his visor.  _ Wouldn’t want to frighten the poor doctor anymore than you already have…  _

“Don’t worry about it,” she smiled, laying comforting hands on his unfeeling shoulder. “Now let’s get you fixed up. The pain is gone, yes?”

He nodded, refusing to look at her.

She looked at him solemnly before going back to the data on the tablet. “Alright I’ve located the target area. I should be able to fix it without any additional equipment.”

Angela pulled on some small black gloves, took some odd-looking tools out of the box and set to work. “I’m surprised there’s no wrench or screwdriver in there,” he commented. 

She chuckled. “You’re a bit more complicated that nuts and bolts, Genji.”

The doctor worked away in silence. Genji refused to turn his head and see what she was doing. “It’s a shame Athena opened the door,” he heard himself say after a considerable amount of time.

“Hmm?” she looked up, pausing in her work. “How do you mean?”

Genji gripped the table harder.  _ I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I can’t resist. _ He quickly looked over his shoulder, catching her eye and giving her the smallest straight-lipped smile he could manage. “I would have loved to see you break it down.”

Angela couldn’t hide her grin. She flicked her head, throwing her bangs from her eyes and returning to the task at hand. “No one gets in the way of my patients.”

“That’s sweet of you. I’m sorry you have to spend your morning on me.”

“Don’t be sorry. These things happen.”

After another moment, Angela asked as she continued fixing the issue, “What did you say earlier? In Japanese?”

_ No point in holding back tonight, _ Genji thought.  _ Tonight’s the night for boldness, I can see _ . “I said I don’t believe you.”

“Why not?”

“…you mesh so well with everyone else,” he admitted, defeated.

“What, like you don’t? If anything, I’d say you fit better than I do. I can’t aim worth a damn; I have no experience with fighting or weapons. I feel more like an older sister or a mother here than I do an equal.”

Genji tilted his head. “But everyone loves you!”

“They have a funny way of showing it. You must never be around whenever anyone’s yelling at me about this place.”

“‘This place’?”

“My office. The whole team’s always telling me I need to stop working in here so much.”

“Why don’t you?” he asked, genuinely curious. He kept his voice low in order to not awaken her anger; she already sounded slightly frustrated.

She sighed, her hands frozen above Genji’s shoulder. “It reminds me of my home, my parents.”

He didn’t comment on that. Angela looked at the side of his face, silently willing him to look at her. “Ironically enough,” she said, “you do too.”

Oh he turned at that, his brows drawn in confusion, his eyes wide in surprise. “I do?”

She smirked playfully, looking down at his bare mechanics. “The whirring sound you make? Reminds me of their facilities, our home.”

He blinked, even more confused. “Whirring?”

Angela placed the tools down on the table, saying, “Athena, can you turn off the computer for me?”

“Right away, Angela.”

Her computer shut down and the room was silent… except for a soft noise, barely audible. Angela picked up the tablet and tapped it once. The feeling in Genji’s numb side roared to life—and so did his internal cybernetic systems. The whirring was no where near as loud as that of the computer, but it was  _ definitely _ noticeable now.

Genji blushed, embarrassed. “That’s— _ hardly _ my doing—” he began, glaring hard at his knees and flexing his right hand.

He stopped short when he felt something soft on his cheek. Genji looked up into the bright blue eyes of Angela Ziegler. His heart quickened, subsequently raising the volume on his mechanics, when he realized what had just happened.  _ She kissed me.  _ Now he was definitely on par with an overloaded computer. 

“Are you sure?” she teased, smiling. When all he did was stare at her, she said, “It’s late. Why don’t you stay?”

“What will we do?”

Angela shrugged. “Sit on the couch. I think I have some extra hot chocolate here I can make.”

The burning in his chest returned, stronger than ever. “Well… you’ve helped me so much tonight, the least I can do is honor your invitation.” Genji said, suddenly sheepish.

Angela made herself some hot chocolate as Genji settled in on the couch. When it was done, she took a few sips, set it on the coffee table, and sat right next to him. She pulled one of her soft blankets around them both, hugged a pillow, and snuggled into Genji’s side. Next thing he knew, the doctor was asleep on his shoulder, lulled to sleep by the soft  _ whirrrrrr _ of his body. He propped his feet on the table and kissed the top of her head. “Goodnight, Angela.”

**Author's Note:**

> (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:・ﾟ✧


End file.
